Shawver Shenanigans: Still Alive & Well

It’s been quite a while since an episode of Shawver Shenanigans. It’s not for lack of Shenanigans. At 20 months old, the quads are getting into all sorts of mischief, so much that I can hardly keep up with them. Another conundrum is that they are quite aware of their behavior and I don’t want to encourage them to continue something undesirable (e.g. climbing on the couch and sprinting) by snapping photos. Nonetheless, I captured a few highlights hopefully without encouraging bad behavior.

The quads have been doing exceptionally well with using utensils at meals. Don’t get me wrong; meals are still a total mess. They are, however, getting food onto their utensils and they transferring that food into their mouth 50% of the time. I’m proud of their progress so I thought I’d do a post about how meals are going with a video clip of some of their marvelous self feeding skills.

I prepared a meal that I thought would help them display their emerging skills: meatloaf with mashed potatoes, green beans, and garlic bread. I thought they’d effortlessly spear the green beans and meatloaf and could scoop the potatoes without them falling off the fork. W-R-O-N-G! The quads did not view this meal as a the culinary art of Suzy Homemaker. Instead, they saw a sensory experience to be seized. Mason grabbed potatoes by the handful and proceeded to fling them across the table as if it were a school cafeteria food fight. As I attempted to redirect him, Sydney artfully smeared potatoes in an arch shape across the table. It didn’t take long before Harper and Rylin joined the shenanigans. I was horrified it the disaster that was my kitchen. Not only were my children creating mayhem at the table, but they weren’t eating the meal I prepared with my last shred of energy for the day. UGH! The potatoes seemed to be wreaking havoc so I scooped them up and attempted to salvage the rest of the meal. I can’t win them all, can I? We’ve had many more meals that would be a fantastic example of civilized toddlers using utensils, but I’ve scrapped sharing that. It seems that when I hit “record”, things go awry.

The meal started off as a pretty one. I tried.

Mason looks a tad guilty here.

In the evenings, George began a new tradition he may soon regret: piggy back rides. He lays on the floor, and one or two babies climbs on his back for a ride. They do surprisingly well checking their balance and hanging on. Of course, these piggy back rides are at a snail’s pace so if they fall it’s not a big deal.

Sometime after nap and before dinner, the quads get all jazzed up with a second wind. They take great pleasure in darting up and down the hallways as they shriek creating a reverberating echo. I’m relatively certain this particular activity contributes to evening headaches, but they are happy squeals so I let them have their fun.

Oohhhh girl, I hear you on the slinging of a well made meal! It’s like deflating your balloon of accomplishment and then you dread the clean-up even more. And my ears were ringing yesterday after all four decided they wanted to scream as loud as possible for 15 minutes because they liked the sound. Quad life!

Hi Amber! What a fun, sweet family you have! Please allow me to introduce myself: Emily White Youree, the managing editor for the Fort Worth Moms Blog. We are celebrating Multiples Awareness Month on the blog, and are interested in chatting with you about being a guest contributor. Yay! Please send me an email and we can discuss details, if you’re interested: editoremily@gmail.com. Hope to hear from you! Oh, and check out our site if you haven’t seen it: fortworthmomsblog.com.

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